The Seventh Rotation Has Prepared

Just like in previous years, the seventh rotation of the Hungarian Defence Forces’ EUFOR Contingent is based on the HDF 25th ’György Klapka’ Infantry Brigade, Combat Support Battalion in Tata but professional and contracted soldiers from the Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment of Gyõr, the Engineering Battalion from Szentes, the Bakony Combat Training Centre in Várpalota, the Székesfehérvár Signal and Command Support Regiment, and the Kaposvár logistics regiment have also applied for posts in the contingent.

In recent weeks, soldiers preparing for deployment abroad were assembled – following individual and special trainings – in the barracks of the Tata infantry brigade where they have undergone the third phase of pre-deployment training, the so-called task force training, which ended with the closing exercise conducted on 18–20 May. By that time there were only 204 troops in the contingent – the commanders will soon select the 147 ’lucky ones’ who will serve in Sarajevo for six months. The rest of the team – some sixty people – will be ’reservists’ for the next rotation.

Lieutenant Colonel Géza Gulyás, the commander of the seventh rotation of the EUFOR Contingent (and commander of the Tata brigade’s combat support battalion) said at the closing exercise: it has happened several times that the battalion ’takes over from itself’ in Sarajevo. In military terminology, this expression means that in an operational area the unit-based contingent replaces a Hungarian team the majority of whom are from the same battalion. And what is more, today we also know – for we have received the order of the superiors – that the most important positions of the planned eighth rotation of the Hungarian EUFOR Contingent will once again have to be filled by officers and NCOs of the combat support battalion.

Most of the soldiers who have completed their pre-deployment training have already been to Sarajevo, and the majority of troops with the contingent have been to other missions as well – told us the commander, who has also served in the West Balkans theatre: in 2005 he was the deputy commander of the HDF Guard and Security Battalion in Pristina, Kosovo.

The three-day exercise closing the pre-deployment training was conducted by the brigade under the command of Colonel László Benda, Chief of Staff – said Lt.Col. Gulyás, who also told us that on the first two days the troops had so-called crowd management tasks in the Szomoród garrison training area and also in the barracks, where there was another challenge waiting for them: they had to rescue a UN official from so-called LOT houses surrounded by an angry crowd.

LOT houses (LOT – Liaison Observer Team) are residences for members of Liaison Observer Teams who, as part of the international forces, make efforts to maintain peace and order in an ethnically divided country. In the event of an attack against these buildings in the operational area, it is the task of EU peacekeepers to safely evacuate those who live in them.

On the last day of the closing exercise soldiers preparing for the mission had to participate in a peacekeeping firearms training – we were told by Lt.Col. Gulyás, in the opinion of whom the preparations were successful. In addition to preparing for peacekeeping tasks, they have had the time to learn about the theatre as well. They have been given a long lecture on Bosnia–Herzegovina, the history of the operational area, the events leading up to the current situation, local culture, religion, ethnic and national issues. The information booklet about the country in the Balkans, published by the HDF Geoinformation Service is also a useful source of information.

In response to the question of honvedelem.hu, Lt.Col. Géza Gulyás emphasised: he is convinced that there is a peaceful and calm environment waiting for Hungarian soldiers in Sarajevo. In spite of that they have to prepare for traditional peacekeeping tasks, for they are well aware that in this ethnically divided country there might be tensions between Bosnians, Croatians, and Serbians.

After the closing exercise members of the contingent will be given a few weeks’ leave and the formal farewell ceremony will take place on 7 July. They will depart for the operational area in three rotations, with the first group leaving on 14 July. The Hungarian soldiers will form one of the companies of the Spanish-led multinational battalion in the operational area. In addition to the Hungarians, the peacekeeping battalion also has a Polish, a Turkish, and a Spanish company, and their most important tasks are patrolling, VIP escort, and crowd management.